1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a permanent waving process in which essential oils are incorporated into hair fibers. The incorporation of the essential oils into the hair fibers not only provides capacity to remove bad odors resulting from freshly permanent waved hair, but also imparts a supple and smooth feeling to the hair when the essential oils are incorporated in the oxidizing solution of the permanent waving process. The essential oils employed are those containing at least one compound, constituent or ingredient in the oil having an ethylenically unsaturated double bond.
2. Description of Prior Art
Cold waving or permanent waving of human hair has been knwon for some time. In salons, heat is sometimes applied. The usual procedure involves, in its simplest terms, the application of a hair waving solution or lotion to the hair which softens the hair and allows for reshaping the hair. Subsequently, the hair is set into the new shape or configuration by application of a neutralizing agent.
Thus, in a conventional permanent waving process, the hair is first softened by application of a waving solution which includes a chemical reducing agent. The reducing agent, employed almost universally in cold waving solutions for human hair, is the mercaptan thioglycollic acid, which is used in the form of its ammonium salt, namely, ammonium thioglycolate. Other mercaptans can be used however, as can certain members of the class of compounds known as sulfites. It is a generally accepted theory in the hair waving field that the reducing agent softens the hair by breaking down the disulfide bonds of the hair keratin which is the basic constituent of the hair. The specific linkage which is broken is the cystine linkage, and the breakage of each linkage produces two sulfhydryl groups. After the usual intermediate rinse, the softened hair is placed in a waved configuration, and then rehardened so that it is returned to its original resilient condition and so that it also retains the new wave. The hardening step, also usually referred to as a "neutralization" step, conventionally involves rebuilding a good portion of the broken disulfide bonds, and ordinarily solutions of hydrogen peroxide or alkaline perborates or bromates are employed for this purpose. A considerable number of processes and materials useful in these processes are known for the waving or straightening of hair.
Essential oils have been employed in the past for the purpose of providing a pleasant odor to shampoos, hair tonics and hair grooming or dressing compositions. Essential oils are generally volatile materials produced from odorous plant materials, but can also be synthetically produced.
More specifically, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,488, granted on July 17, 1984 to Grollier et al. for "PLANT EXTRACTION RESIDUE AS A THICKENING OR OPACIFYING AGENT FOR A COSMETIC COMPOSITION," a plant extraction residue, remaining after extraction of essential oils therefrom, has been employed as a thickening or opacifying composition for a cosmetic composition, such as creams, gels, make-up, skin masks, hair dyeing or bleaching products, permanents, uncurling products and hair rinse products to be applied before or after hair treatment or blow-dry lotions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,950, granted on Aug. 6, 1985 to Lang et al for "PROCESS FOR THE PERMANENT DEFORMATION OF HAIR," describes a process for permanent deformation of hair, as its title indicates, and is more specifically concerned with a process in which the hair keratin reducing composition or permanent waving solution employed in the first step contains an organic compound having an activated carbon-carbon bond. Illustrative of such compounds are acids, salts thereof, esters, amides and nitriles. The solution may also contain a perfume oil.